Goa to file FIRs against ex-CMs, in mining scam

A day after the Shah Commission’s report on illegal mining in Goa was tabled in Parliament, the state government decided to file FIRs against former CMs Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat, and several bureaucrats for their alleged involvement in the scam.

“The FIRs will be filed within 15 days,” CM Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.

The ruling BJP has been accusing the erstwhile Congress governments in Goa of being part of a mining mafia.

Parrikar said the FIRs would be based on the findings of the Justice MB Shah Commission, which has pegged the pickings from illegal iron ore mining in Goa at nearly Rs 35,000 crore.

The report blames Goa’s CMs and mines ministers between 1994 and 2010 for the alleged illegalities. Kamat was CM from 2007 to 2012 and a mines minister for over a decade. Rane has been CM intermittently for over two decades.

He said the FIRs would also name officials of the Union ministry of environment and forests and Indian Bureau of Mines.